Need help with wireless on laptop

[Philliesfan251]

I've been looking through posts and have been Google searching and I still can't find the solution. I can't go on the Internet with my Dell Inspiron 1521 Laptop using Ubuntu 9.04. I can connect to unsecure networks but can't surf the web, and I can't connect to my home network at all. I can connect via Ethernet. I activated the Broadcom driver but it didn't work. I've been reading posts and think this will help.

    frank@ubuntu:~$ uname -rm
    2.6.28-11-generic x86_64
    frank@ubuntu:~$ lspci
    00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 Host Bridge
    00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (Internal gfx)
    00:05.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 1)
    00:07.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 3)
    00:12.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA
    00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0)
    00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1)
    00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2)
    00:13.3 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3)
    00:13.4 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4)
    00:13.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI)
    00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 14)
    00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE
    00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
    00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge
    00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
    00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
    00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
    00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
    00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
    01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS690M [Radeon X1200 Series]
    03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
    03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
    03:01.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
    03:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 12)
    03:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
    03:01.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev ff)
    0b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)
    frank@ubuntu:~$ lshw -C Network
    WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
      *-network               
           description: Wireless interface
           product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
           vendor: Broadcom Corporation
           physical id: 0
           bus info: pci@0000:0b:00.0
           logical name: eth1
           version: 01
           serial: 00:1e:4c:29:a9:77
           width: 32 bits
           clock: 33MHz
           capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
           configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl0 driverversion=5.10.79.10 ip=192.168.0.104 latency=0 module=wl multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
      *-network
           description: Ethernet interface
           product: BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
           vendor: Broadcom Corporation
           physical id: 0
           bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
           logical name: eth0
           version: 02
           serial: 00:1c:23:ab:f4:56
           width: 32 bits
           clock: 33MHz
           capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
           configuration: broadcast=yes driver=b44 driverversion=2.0 latency=64 module=ssb multicast=yes
      *-network DISABLED
           description: Ethernet interface
           physical id: 1
           logical name: pan0
           serial: a6:a5:a7:81:cc:ed
           capabilities: ethernet physical
           configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bridge driverversion=2.3 firmware=N/A multicast=yes

I'm an Ubuntu noob. Let me know if you need any more info.

[mapes12]

There appears to be a large amount of posts regarding poor wifi support in 9.04. A fresh install of 8.10 or 8.04 may solve the problem. Alternatively, here are some links that may be helpful:

http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/products/wireless/

http://wicd.sourceforge.net/

http://madwifi.org/

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=794815

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...3d3c3468508d45

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...eShootingGuide

Also, try the Dell Ubuntu forum: http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=342

Mark

[dwouters]

There appears to be a large amount of posts regarding poor wifi support in 9.04. A fresh install of 8.10 or 8.04 may solve the problem. Alternatively, here are some links that may be helpful:

http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/products/wireless/

http://wicd.sourceforge.net/

http://madwifi.org/

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=794815

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...3d3c3468508d45

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...eShootingGuide

Also, try the Dell Ubuntu forum: http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=342

Mark

Alternatively, you can go here: http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu_9.04 and download the proper ISO directly from Dell for your laptop.

[richg]

Another possibility is, you could install Mint 7 which I think is based on Ubuntu 9.04. I have a Acer Aspire laptop that I installed Mint 7 on and the wireless works right out of the box.
My desktop PC has wireless with Mint 7 and no issues.

Rich